Thursday, September 19, 2013PSU-WVU to meet in 2023, 2024
By Josh Moyer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State has certainly been getting a head start on its future schedules lately.

The Nittany Lions announced Thursday afternoon that they have scheduled a home-and-home with West Virginia for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. PSU will host the Mountaineers on Sept. 2, 2023, and will then travel to Morgantown on Aug. 31, 2024.

The move comes just a month after PSU scheduled Virginia Tech for the 2022-2023 seasons.

"As we prepare to move to a nine-game Big Ten schedule [2016], I am very pleased that we have been able to schedule old rivals like West Virginia and Pitt and Virginia Tech in upcoming years," PSU athletic director Dave Joyner said.

It's far into the future -- today's third graders will wind up playing as freshmen in the game -- but it sure beats another round of lower-tier MAC opponents. Someone might even want to send ESPN.com reporter Brian Bennett a nice housewarming gift after he suggested in June that the Hokies and Mountaineers "would be fun and easy trips for Lions fans."

(Bennett also mentioned Alabama, Miami (Fla.) and possibly USC. Maybe we'll hear about those matchups in time for the 2037 season?)

PSU's nonconference opponents haven't elicited a lot of excitement lately. It played -- and lost -- to Alabama in 2010 and 2011, but other opponent mainstays have included the likes of Eastern Michigan and Temple.

This is another step in the right direction for Penn State. And, at this rate, it will have all its schedules through 2025 filled out before the new year.